The scoreboard read 103-102. Game on the line. Season teetering on the edge.
Oklahoma City turned to the one man who’d brought them this far season — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — and the reigning MVP delivered.
“He definitely showed who he is tonight,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said of Gilgeous-Alexander’s clutch fourth-quarter takeover in a series-tying 111-104 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
[ALSO READ: SGA-led Thunder give Pacers dose of own medicine, rallies in Game 4 to tie NBA Finals series]
SGA scored 15 of his 35 points in the final 4:38 of regulation, flipping the script in a championship series that had largely belonged to Indiana in crunch time. His 11 points in the final three minutes were tied for the second-most in that span of an NBA Finals game over the past 50 years.
"We played with desperation to end the game. And that's why we won," Gilgeous-Alexander said in the postgame press conference.
Indeed, and by winning the fourth-quarter battle for the first time in the Finals, the Thunder avoided a 3-1 deficit and is heading back home for a crucial Game 5 with the series tied at 2-2.
“I knew what it would have looked like if we lost tonight,” Gilgeous-Alexander added.
He continued: “I didn’t want to go out without swinging. I didn’t want to go out not doing everything I could do in my power, in my control, to try to win the game.”
That urgency showed when it mattered most.
Trailing by four with just over three minutes left, the 26-year-old scored on step-back triple off a two-man game with Jalen Williams to cut the deficit to one.
On the next possession, he attacked in isolation, knocked down a cold-blooded jumper over a fallen Aaron Nesmith to give the Thunder their first lead of the second half with 2:23 to go — a lead they would not surrender.
“He really didn’t have it going a lot of the night. For him to flip the switch like that speaks to how great of a player he is,” Daigneault said.
"For him to be able to flip the switch like that... just speaks to how great of a player he is."
— NBA (@NBA) June 14, 2025
SGA in crunchtime? Impressive 👏
Jalen Williams tallied 27 points, Alex Caruso added 20 off the bench along with five steals to become the first player in NBA history to record multiple 20-point games in the Finals after none in the regular season. Chet Holmgren added 14 points and 15 rebounds.
Still, it was the Thunder’s MVP who kept their title hopes alive.
“You wouldn’t know if it was a preseason game or Game 4 of the Finals down 2-1,” Caruso said of Gilgeous-Alexander’s even-keeled demeanor.
He continued: “He’s stoic. But underneath that is a deep-rooted competitiveness. That’s sprinkled throughout this whole team.”
That team-wide resilience helped Oklahoma City overcome a dreadful shooting night from beyond the arc, where they hit just 3-of-15 attempts and were out-assisted, 21-11.
Even so, they dominated other margins — outrebounding the Pacers, 43-33, and scoring 25 points off 16 forced turnovers on top of sinking 34 of 38 free throws.
“No matter what happens — good or bad, pretty or ugly — we’re always going to stick together. We’re going to win together. We’re going to fail together. But we’re going to do it together,” Holmgren marveled.
As the Thunder now head home with the series tied, they believe their best basketball is still ahead.
“We’ve got to get better now,” Daigneault said. “That’s a really good team that’s found some solutions against us. As we go home, we have to evaluate things on both ends of the floor.”
